Politics

• Wednesday, December 9th 2009 - 14:29 UTC

  Venezuelan top private bankers help to calm markets and depositors

  

  A two-week banking crisis in Venezuela seems to be settling down following President Hugo Chavez announcement that private banks will be respected but new rules to make the system more transparent and production-geared will begin to be enforced.

• Wednesday, December 9th 2009 - 08:32 UTC

  Brazilian Senate ready to vote on Venezuela’s Mercosur incorporation

  

  Brazilian president Lula da Silva announced Tuesday during the Mercosur summit in Montevideo that the Brazilian Senate should, finally, vote on the incorporation of Venezuela to the South American trade group as a full member.

• Wednesday, December 9th 2009 - 08:23 UTC

  Search for remains of British priest killed when 1973 Chilean coup

  

  Investigators will be searching for the body of torture victim Father Micheal Woodward at a cemetery in the Chilean city of Valparaiso (Region V) through next month, the victim’s family informed Chilean press on Monday.

• Wednesday, December 9th 2009 - 00:51 UTC

  England’s Capello is paid eight times more than Dunga or Maradona

  

  The 32 coaches of the national teams participating in the South Africa 2010 World Cup are paid handsomely with England’s Fabio Capello top of the list with an annual salary of 10 million US dollars while Nigeria’s Shaibu Amodu, figures at the other extreme with 180.000 US dollars, according to the Argentina’s sports publication Olé.

• Wednesday, December 9th 2009 - 00:23 UTC

  Woman elected president to the Brazil’s most popular football club

  

  Former swimmer Patricia Amorim became the first woman to be elected president of Flamengo, the most popular football club in Brazil.

• Wednesday, December 9th 2009 - 00:17 UTC

  Spain formally apologizes for hot pursuit “error” in Gibraltar waters

  

  A dramatic hot pursuit at sea by Spanish Civil Guards of two suspected smugglers whose vessel crashed into the rocks in Gibraltar avoided becoming a major political incident with Spain apologising for the “error” just a few hours later on Monday night, reports the Gibraltar Chronicle.

• Wednesday, December 9th 2009 - 00:03 UTC

  Mike Summers chairman of Falklands Overseas Games Association

  

  Following sixteen years as Chairman of the Falkland Islands Overseas Games Association (FIOGA) and the previous two years as Vice-Chairman, Patrick Watts M.B.E confirmed his decision not to seek re-election at the 2009 Annual General Meeting of FIOGA held on 03 December 2009.
  Mike Summers O.B.E. a former member of the Executive and Legislative Councils of the Falkland Islands was elected to replace Mr Watts.

• Tuesday, December 8th 2009 - 23:30 UTC

  Six charged with the death in 1982 of former Chilean president

  

  A Chilean judge has charged six people over the death in 1982 of the country's ex-President, Eduardo Frei Montalva. The judge said there was now evidence that Mr Frei, a vocal critic of military leader Augusto Pinochet, had been poisoned in hospital.

• Tuesday, December 8th 2009 - 14:07 UTC

  Mercosur promotes trade with local currencies, far from “US dollar tensions”

  

  Mercosur is considering extending a “successful” Brazil/Argentina bilateral trade experience which sidelines the US dollar and privileges regional currencies to the rest of the group’s full members, Paraguay and Uruguay, thus avoiding being submitted to the “greenback’s tensions”.

• Tuesday, December 8th 2009 - 09:04 UTC

  Sawle thanks UK for unconditional commitment to Falklands’ self-determination

  

  The Falklands’ electorate vote for complete change, the UK’s unconditional commitment to the Islanders right to self-determination, economic diversification and development, Argentine next of kin humanitarian visits, were among the issues discussed Monday by Falklands Legislative Assembly member Dick Sawle and Foreign Office Minister Chris Bryant.